It’s been 25 years since he shimmied in his skivvies in Risky Business, but Tom Cruise can still shake it like a pro, according to his Tropic Thunder director Ben Stiller.

“The guy has moves,” says Stiller, who also co-wrote and stars in the military-themed action-comedy.

Cruise, 46, is winning raves for his role as a vulgar, venom-spewing studio executive in the movie, in which he’s nearly unrecognizable beneath a fat suit, a bald cap and a beard.

The dancing was Cruise’s idea, says his director.

“It wasn’t in the script,” Stiller said during a press day for the film. “He was like, ‘You know, I really feel like I want this guy to dance.’ ”

Some of the physical transformation was Cruise’s brainchild too. “He said, ‘I really want to have some big, hairy hands,’ ” says Stiller. “I actually didn’t have to sell him on anything.”

Cruise isn’t the only Thunder actor who took on a controversial, image-twisting role: Robert Downey Jr. has drawn praise for his portrayal of an African-American actor in the movie.

Tropic Thunder hits theaters Aug. 13. (People, August 07, 2008)

Share

Tom Cruise says Ben Stiller is his inspiration. Cruise, who has a cameo as a fat balding studio executive in Ben’s new comedy ‘Tropic Thunder’, loved working with the comic star and has praised his achievements in Hollywood. He said: “One can’t fully appreciate what Ben has accomplished in acting, writing, directing, producing, and starring in a film like ‘Tropic Thunder’ without recognising that any single one of these functions alone is a full-time job.” Cruise, who worked with Stiller on 2000 mockumentary ‘Mission: Improbable’, has also revealed he didn’t hesitate at the chance to team up with him again after Ben described the movie as his “dream project”.

The 46-year-old ‘Top Gun’ star added to Men’s Vogue magazine: “To make a long story short, I read it, I loved it, and we started working on it.”

Meanwhile, Ben has praised Tom’s comic timing in ‘Tropic Thunder’ and insists he was prepared to do anything to raise a laugh.

Stiller said: “He said, ‘I want really big hands playing this guy.’ I said, ‘Really? Big hands?’ He had these hands made, and then I said, ‘Well, it’d be really cool if you were bald too.’ Then we did this make-up test where he got bald.

“Then he said, ‘It’d be interesting if this guy danced.’ He started dancing. I was loving it. I asked him if he’d be up for dancing in the end credits and he said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ ” (Source: iafrica)

Share